Guess Who's Coming to Dinner ("Don't Ask, Don't Tell")
Just when I'm prepared to love/hate/love Ugly Betty's Marc in secret perpetuity (damn you!) I jump back across to unabashed full adoration after this latest hilarious, twisted, and genuinely touching episode.
The latest, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which started out as a hilarious play on Marc's semi-secret life (pretend-dating the fabulous Amanda every year or so while Mom's in town) turned out to be a devastating take on what makes family, family. While also providing a reminder that we also make our own families -- all of us have those certain friends who are family, through and through, where it counts -- who listen after even the worst days, who remind us how to laugh -- who love us, in short, for who we are.
And kudos to everyone involved for a heartfelt episode that balanced heart with pathos, that wasn't afraid to balance the laughs with the heartache (Marc and Betty's ridiculous names for each other, for instance, included "treasure" and "enchilada," etc. when things got tough).
Sure, the episode was a howler, from Marc's impromptu kiss of Betty (which will go down in TV history, filed under awwwwkward) to his hysteria under the fluorescent lighting in Wili's new office, but it was ultimately (as all of the best UB episodes are) a heartbreaker, as Marc came out bravely to his Mom, Claire stood up to her biggest temptations, and Betty stood by a friend (in spite of that incident where he'd tricked her into eating glue).
Patti LuPone was genius casting, too -- hard as nails but believably so, and she beautifully played the one small moment when you really thought she might come through (nope).
Betty's speech on her front steps about family was perfectly timed, especially watching Alexis joyfully beat poor well-intentioned Daniel in a last-minute footrace to the publisher (when Daniel, ironically, was simply trying to publish a public and sincere welcome back to his sister). Hard as she tries, though, Alexis just isn't cut out for evil. She's competitive, but sunnily so, and Rebecca Romijn is lovely at showing us her character's hidden vulnerabilities. As Daniel drowned his sorrows in supermodels, Alexis wasn't glorying in her own inner Cruella, but was instead back at the hospital, doing the right thing as she fed poor Claire, who was herself still recovering as she'd managed to withstand Wili's sweetly evil offer of alcohol in exchange for Mode. Daniel can't see it, but his family's actually just fine. (Although Wili better start checking her brake lines if she follows through with seducing Meade Senior. Although Vanessa Williams looked gorgeous showing up at Meade's doorway in nothing but a fur coat, all I could think was, aghghghhghg, Wili, no...)
Betty, too, got a nice reminder of how lucky she really was in her own screwball family, from the bravery of nephew Justin, who lives out and proud, "I am what I am," every day, to her bossy sister and loving father. It's not a perfect family, to be sure, but their generosity on Betty's behalf (and even Marc's) was a welcome change from the constant duplicities surrounding the Meades. In the end, we knew Marc meant it, when he agreed with Betty that he was "freakin' fabulous," then quietly reminded her "you'll always be my little chimichanga." "Doesn't mean I like you!" he hastily added, horrified, but Betty's smile showed it was too late: Marc's capitulated. He may not always like Betty, but he loves her, and it was great to see that little moment between them.
And major kudos to Michael Urie, who plays Marc, for straddling a character who's at his best when deliciously bitchy, and yet who never fails to show us the heart in Marc that beats beneath Wili's Flying Monkey... a really memorable episode for this lovely series, and one that shows why its heart will always beat loud and clear.
But for the other side of the coin, let's hear it for Claire Meade, who barely blinked at Alexis's sex change, just happy to have her child back. Marc's mother's awfulness was the perfect counterpoint to the dry martini of perfection that is Claire Meade (and Judith Light rocks every single moment she has onscreen).
Family, Pt. 2: "Icing on the Cake"
Just look at last week's "Icing on the Cake," with Mama Meade's perfectly delivered, deadpan, "You can't bottle this kind of chemistry" when faced with the sight of Betty dating Gabe, her sweet (and adorkable) orthodontist. Who was charmingly played, incidentally, by Jesse Tyler Ferguson of "The Class" and the fabulous Broadway production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
This was another favorite episode of mine, combining all of Betty's trademark physical humor and yearning. Amanda in the latex dress was just the height of physical comedy, tripping over her own feet, carrying memos in her mouth (her dress was too tight for her to lift her arms), or most especially, trapped standing on a toilet, screaming, "I haven't peed all day!" While Henry and Betty remained painful and adorable at the same time.
While I am nowhere near losing my love for Henry, I'm frustrated at him, and with Betty, who are staring all lovelorn at one another across the echoes of the Mode offices. Life's too short, guys. Make the hard choices, be adults, say what needs to be said. Just do it already.
Or if Henry won't wise up, then Betty, call Gabe. Even Mama Meade would approve.
